Everything about West Germanic Gemination totally explained
West Germanic gemination is a sound change that took place in all
West Germanic languages, around 300 AD. All single consonants except /r/ were
geminated (doubled) after a short vowel and before /j/; sometimes also before /w/, /r/, and /l/. A similar change occurred in the history of
Old Norse, but was much more limited, applying only after /k/ and /g/. This change particularly affected the infinitives of the first conjugation of
weak verbs, which ended in /jan/. By historical times (c. 800-900 AD), all of the West Germanic languages except
Old Saxon had dropped the /j/. The /j/ also triggered
i-Mutation, as well as
palatalization in
Old English and
Old Frisian. Examples:
| Gothic (no gemination) |
Old Saxon |
Old English |
|
| bidjan |
biddian |
biddan |
"ask" |
| hugjan |
huggian |
hycgan |
"think" |
| leitils |
luttil |
|
"little" |
| akrs |
akkar |
æcer |
"field, land" |
Further Information
Get more info on 'West Germanic Gemination'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://west_germanic_gemination.totallyexplained.com">West Germanic gemination Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
